Embodied Epistemology as Rigorous Historical Method (Elements in Histories of Emotions and the Senses) - Hardcover

Mancia, Lauren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1009590359 ISBN 13: 9781009590358

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2025

Synopsis

This Element proposes that, in addition to using traditional historical methodologies, historians need to find extra-textual, embodied ways of understanding the past in order to more fully comprehend it. Written by a medieval historian, the Element explains why historians assume they cannot use reperformance in historical inquiry and why they, in fact, should. The Element employs tools from the discipline of performance studies, which has long grappled with the differences between the archive and the repertoire, between the records of historical performances and the embodied movements, memories, and emotions of the performance itself, which are often deemed unknowable by scholars. It shows how an embodied epistemology is particularly suited to studying certain premodern historical topics, using the example of medieval monasticism. Finally, using the case of performance-lectures given at The Met Cloisters, it shows how using performance as a tool for historical investigation might work.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009590359
• ISBN 13: 9781009590358
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 74